Thursday, July 5, 2012

The God Particle and the Easter Bunny

The news is out that scientists have discovered "the God Particle." This particle, as theorized by some in the scientific community, has given us some insight into the origins of our world and the universe. One article from yahoo news says, "Fermilab Staff Scientist Robert Roser says the Higgs boson is a particle that attracts other particles, and explains how matter has mass. This gives clues to how planets, and ultimately life, is formed. But he points out his colleagues at CERN were careful to say they found a "Higgs-like" object, but not the Higgs boson itself." In other words, contrary to public belief, the "God particle" known as the Higgs boson has not been found. And that is why I am writing today.

Before I get to my main point let me say that I love science. I love how small science can make humanity feel. It is humbling to see a picture of space from the eye of the Hubble Telescope. When we understand that there are trillions of stars and many trillions more that we will never see I am immediately humbled. Science continues to draw me to the Creator. Many Christians might be afraid of science but I am not. I love it and I love what comes from it. I am however saddened that when humans discover something great they immediately look for ways to disprove the existence of God. The God Particle, astronomy, physics, biology, and all of the sciences prove that God has done something wonderful - create.

What happens with stories like the God particle is that the general public will not investigate before they propagate. They will read quick headlines, tweets, facebook statuses and a listen to a few jokes about how stupid God is and how cool science is from the likes of Bill Maher and they will assemble all of this into one giant fact - the God particle means there is no God. But we will fail to realize that our conclusion that God is dead is based on non-facts. Right now all that has been proven is that there is no God - particle. We have looked and we have not yet found it.

All of the sudden scientific rules (which many don't understand or take into consideration) will be forgotten and bloggers and facebook trolls will begin to argue from idiocy rather than intelligent discussion. For example, the "God particle" is not called the "God particle" by serious scientists. Second, the particle has not been found and there is only theory rather than real scientific evidence that it actually exists. Third, even if the particle does exist, and I think it would be cool if they do discover it, it does not disprove the existence of God or His creation of the world. It only tells us more about how God got things done. But somehow, we will hold onto catch phrases, comedy routines and what our most intelligent facebook friend said about the God particle rather than what the truth actually is.

When I was younger my parents would hide an Easter Egg basket on Easter Sunday morning and each of my brothers and sister would search for the basket as my mom and dad would chant "colder" or "warmer" depending on how close we were to finding the basket. Obviously, the closer we got the "hotter" the chant would become. When we found the basket we hugged our mom and dad and thanked them. Never did we imagine that an actual Easter bunny came into our house and left a basket full of Reeses Cups.

Science is like an Easter Egg hunt in my humble opinion. We are looking for answers and we are delighted when we find answers. However, when we discover something incredible we act like children who believe that an actual Easter bunny left the eggs for us rather than our parents. Scientists have been looking for this God particle for years and have spent millions of dollars and countless hours hard at work. You can almost hear God saying, "Warmer, warmer, hot, hot, hot!" as the scientists came closer and closer to discovery. But now that we have found something significant we begin to give credit to ourselves, to chance, to fate and to chaos - the Easter bunny - rather than God.

Romans 1 tells us that we are in the sinful habit of giving credit where credit is not due. Our sinful nature causes us to look at creation and attribute it to something else or someone else other than God. That is exactly where science has gone wrong. Science should be about discovering what God has done and how He has done it. Instead we are out to prove that our parents would never leave us a basket full of candy because the Easter bunny makes more sense.

Tonight I will go home after a long day at work. I will hang out with my family. I will play music with our band. I will lay down in my bed and eventually turn on the Science Channel before falling asleep. I will go to sleep knowing that I am pretty insignificant but that God has done something wonderful. I have lived another day on a planet that continues to orbit and rotate around a sun that continues to feed life. I will give Him thanks that He didn't leave anything up to chance.

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About Me

I am the lead pastor of Stone's Throw Church in Middletown, Delaware. My mission is to reach people who are far from God in order to introduce them to Jesus who has given us every opportunity to be right with God.